Numerous attempts have been made to develop a treatment composition that provides protection of surfaces by repelling water and oil based soils from the surface. Fluoropolymers, such as those used in Scotchguard® from 3M, have become well established as soil-repellant molecules. However, fluoropolymers are not preferred due to environmental, and health and safety concerns, such as potential and possibility of persistent bioaccumulation and toxicity.
The combination of polyorganosiloxane fluids and silicone resins in attempts to treat hard or soft surfaces is also known. Silicone resins are highly cross-linked silicone materials that have very high viscosities. These materials are generally difficult to handle in a manufacturing environment and difficult to formulate with, given their high viscosities. And, incorporating compositions containing silicone resins into liquid-based and emulsion-based treatment formulations generally requires high energy processes.
And, an amino-modified silicone microemulsion that contains an amino-modified silicone and a high concentration of both ethylene glycol monoalkyl ether and nonionic surfactant, e.g., polyoxyalkylene branched decyl ether, is known; this amino-modified silicone nanoemulsion is described as transparent in appearance and having a small particle diameter.
Unfortunately, to date, the attempts at non-fluoropolymer protection of surfaces continue to demonstrate disadvantages, including low efficiency, difficulty in achieving the desired benefits at affordable cost and in a preferred format, processing and formulation challenges, and product instability. A continued need exists for a non-fluoropolymer technology that delivers depositable benefits to surfaces, such as water and oily soil repellency, in a convenient form and at a high efficiency.